Spring 2008: Update from Sanghamitra Service Society, Andhra Pradesh, India

In our project ‘Improving the Education and Health of Children and Communities in Andhra Pradesh’, each of our five local partners have established Children’s Parliaments. The children in each Supplementary Education Centre elected a Speaker, a Prime Minister, a Home Minister, a Health Minister, a Finance Minister and an Education Minister. This is a new concept to improve the leadership skills and social responsibilities of the children attending our Supplementary Education Classes.

Christmas Appeal 2008

This year we are seeking funding for a mobile health and education centre for extremely poor, rural communities in Bangladesh. During the monsoon season many villages were completely cut off from the mainland due to the flooding, meaning that they have no access to any form of schooling or healthcare. When our Programme Coordinator, Zaman, visited one such village he met Rahila, a 59-year-old widow. Rahila’s daughter in law, Shafia, had tragically lost her life in childbirth just weeks before. The delivery had become difficult as the baby was breech, the floodwater was very high and there were no trained birth attendants present.

After 6 hours of traumatic labour, Rahila and her son had no choice but to put Shafia in their small fishing boat and make the 3-hour journey to the nearest clinic. Both Shafia and her baby died in the boat on the way to hospital. This sad and untimely loss of life could so easily be avoided by providing education on safe delivery and a mobile health clinic and so with your support LfL would like to provide this community with a fully equipped mechanised boat that would be on hand to provide immediate healthcare and advice and transport people to hospital when necessary. The boat will also have library and education facilities to enable children to continue their studies during the three to six months of monsoon. If you would like to make a contribution please clink on the “How I Can Help” section of the website. Thank you and seasons greetings from all the Learning for Life team.

Winter 2008: Case Study - Andhra Pradesh, India

15-year-old K. Elia is a student one of our Supplementary Education Centres in Vijayawada, India. His father left many years ago and his mother, a hospital cleaner, earns barely enough to support the family. Before attending our supplementary school Elia was a shy boy who struggled with his studies. He enrolled in our centre a few years ago where he was provided with nutrition supplements to help him regain his health and his tutor ensured he had additional support to enable him to catch up with his peers. Soon his confidence grew, his personality began to shine and his teacher’s praised his interest, enthusiasm and academic progress. 

His hard work was rewarded this year when he achieved a score of 561 out of 700 in his public examinations, the highest mark in his city. Our local partner, VMM, held a celebration evening to congratulate all the children who had taken the exams and gave special recognition to Elia. He has since been accepted to the Rajeev Gandhi EEE College and his place includes free lodging and board. Elia’s lifetime ambition is to become an engineer.